About Me

I'm just me - a solitary wanderer who trekked across much of the world and recently retired to a small farm in the Ozarks.
My checkered past includes time spent as an Army officer, high school teacher and principal, real estate broker, child protection worker and administrator, and social worker with the U.S. military.
Over the years I have resided in a variety of places including Missouri, Virginia, Okinawa, Kansas, Kentucky, and Arizona. I have also traveled to Germany, Mexico, Canada, Russia, Sweden, Great Britain, Belize, Guatemala, Taiwan, Guam, South Korea, Vietnam, and numerous islands in the Caribbean - including Cuba.
I have ridden in a Russian ambulance, hitch-hiked across Moscow late at night, fought an ostrich, celebrated New Year's at a street party in Hanoi, and bicycled across the Caribbean. My travels have taken me to Ground Zero in Hiroshima, the Bolshoi Ballet, China Beach, and the White House kitchen.
The nine things in life that I am most proud of are my children: Nick, Molly, and Tim, and my grandchildren: Boone, Sebastian, Judah, Olive, Willow, and Sullivan.
Life has been very good to me indeed!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Everything's Up to Date in Kansas City:

They've Gone About as Fer as They Can Go!

by Pa RockTourist

It's been a busy day in Kansas City. Tim and Erin and I had brunch at Tom Foolerie's on the Plaza with Carla and her daughter, Jennie. It was a get-acquainted session so the kids could meet the parents - great food and conversation.

I tagged along with Tim and Erin after brunch to a visit to the Kansas City Farmers' Market which covers a nice piece of real estate in the center of town. The market had a wide array of farm-fresh fruits and vegetables, along with some very interesting places to eat. We followed that up with a trip to a large flea market - where I behaved and didn't drag anything back to their apartment!

Erin had a family obligation this afternoon, so Tim and I went exploring on our own. We had great pizza at a place by the name of Minsky's, and followed that with a trip to really fancy grocery store. Cosentino's, the grocery, had several deli and speciality shops, and a wide array of groceries ranging from staple foods to gourmet items. I observed a little girl begging her parents for a small bottle of "root beer milk," so I had to have one as well! (It was that type of shopping trip!) Before leaving, we had samples of gelato and wound up buying cups of that as well. My flavors were caramel and coconut cream pie - um, um, good!

Cosentino's had shiny black grocery carts that navigated beautifully as long as they were inside of the store. As soon as a cart left the premisis, it's wheels would lock up! This country boy was amazed - everything really is up to date in Kansas City! (My inner social worker is very concerned about the future of homeless people if these new-fangled carts catch on!)

1 comment:

You can sure tell an out of towner! Tim & Erin live downtown, Quality Hill as I recall. That speaks volumes to their cool factor.

The Farmer's Market is four to five blocks south of the river. Looking at a map an out of towner would say this was the center of the city.

That gets confusing because mid-town is about forty blocks south of Tim & Erin's place.

Carla, as I recall, was always a south-town girl. Her first K.C. place was south of Waldo. She's a Redbridge to Grandview person. Or maybe she moved back closer to the plaza, I did a few years ago.

Everything north of the river is called northland. That includes North Kansas City and Kansas City North, along with Riverside, Weston, Liberty and a chunk of smaller towns.

Don't cry for the downtown homeless social worker. Cosentinos is a brand new store serving the downtown denizens. The last one was about a block north of the farmers market and it has been gone for at least four years and had no carts that left the store.

Just north of that old store is Riverside park where a small community of the homeless live under the crawl spaces of abandoned river warehouse buildings. You gotta hope they have shelter this week.